Pictured: Braylynn Henderson pitched game one for the win.
By: Justin Hargrove, Assistant Athletic Director
Wet field conditions pushed the Northeast Texas Community College matchup with National Park College to Sunday, February 26th, and the Eagles used that extra day to prepare and came away with a sweep. Game one saw NTCC defeat the Nighthawks 6-0 and win a back and forth contest in game two 11-10.
Braylynn Henderson (West Columbia, Texas) got the start in the circle in game one and went the complete game for the Eagles. Henderson struck out six and induced nine fly outs in the game to keep the Nighthawks off the board in game one.
Haley McAlexander (New Boston, Texas) would lead off the game with a single and use her speed to make her way around the bases and get the Eagles on the board in the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead.
NTCC would pick up another run in the third inning when Raelyn Kinard (Lake Jackson, Texas) reached via a walk and later scored on a single by Jalissa Alvarez (Mount Pleasant, Texas) to increase the lead to 2-0.
The Eagles once again added a run in the bottom of the fourth inning to move ahead 3-0 when Giselle Fuentes (Lacissine, LA) singled and came around to score on a bases loaded walk.
The fifth inning also provided a run for NTCC to move to 4-0 with a solo homerun by Jalissa Alvarez (Mount Pleasant, Texas).
The Eagles would put the game away for good with they added the final two runs of the game in the bottom of the sixth inning when Carson Zachry (Mount Pleasant, Texas) and Kinard would hit back to back singles with one out and score on a double by Kailey Hancock (Pollock, Texas).
Game two action was more back and forth for both teams, with NTCC pulling out the victory in the bottom of the seventh on a Sacrifice Fly by Giselle Fuentes.
National Park got things going first and took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but NTCC answered with a run of their own in their half of the inning to lead 2-0. McAlexander started the game off with a single and was later joined by Zachry on the bases as she singled as well. Back to back singles by Kinard and Lilly Galaviz (Denton, TX) would plate McAlexander and Zachry to recapture the lead 2-1.
NTCC would add to the lead in game two with a run coming across the plate in the second inning with Skylar Liebrecht (Lakewood, CA) leading off with a single and making her way around the base paths to eventually score to move the game to 3-1.
National Park tried to answer back in the third inning with a run to cut the lead to 3-2, but the Eagles again added runs in their half of the third inning to keep the Nighthawks behind on the scoreboard. Alvarez would hit a one out single, followed by a double by Liebrecht to score Jalissa. Liebrecht and Fuentes scored on a three-run homerun by Hannah Boettcher (Valley Mills, Texas) to move the lead to7-2.
National Park again tried to keep the game close and scored three runs in the fourth inning to make it a one run game, 7-5 NTCC leading.
In the Eagle half of the fourth they once again would try to put the Nighthawks away and scored three runs to move the score to 10-5. Galaviz would single and Hancock would walk to bring up the hometown girl Alvarez and she would hit her second home run of the day with a three-run blast to left-center field.
A three run fifth inning and two run sixth inning by National Park would tie the game at 10-10 going into the final inning as the Nighthawks would not go away easy.
Anna Green (Ore City, Texas) who had come in relief of starter Daphne Bogenschutz (White Oak, Texas) would shut the door with a one, two, three seventh to give the Eagles a chance to walk it off in the bottom of the final inning.
Alvarez capped off a big day with a double to the right-center gap. Liebrecht would lay down a nice sacrifice bunt to move Alvarez to third. Fuentes hit a Sacrifice Fly to right deep enough to bring home Alvarez for the win.
Bogenschutz would start game two and give the Eagles four innings of work before handing it off to Green to finish out the game.
